Women on Writing - WOW and WOW!
Women On Writing is an online magazine and community for women writers. Among major topics are novel writing, indie publishing, author platform, blogging, screenwriting, and more. Lots of contests and general jocularity sans frittering on the part of Earth's most powerful humans.
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I've spent so much of the last year (more if I'm being honest) feeling overwhelmed. I don't know if it's the stress of the pandemic, the volatility of farming, trying to juggle teenagers and toddlers, or being an only child with an aging mother. I really can't just pick one thing, but I keep straying away from things that bring me joy - and now my health is paying the price for it. I want to get back to writing. I want to read more books. I want to do more blog tours. I want to ride my horses more often. The list goes on - I just want to get back to my happy self. When I think of all the things I haven't done and all the things I should be doing or want to do, I feel abs…
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Sometimes, we can all feel a little stuck. Being stuck can look like writer's block. It can look like a lot of unfinished projects. It can also look like never putting our butts in the chair. What do we do when we’re stuck? I’m not going to define exactly what I mean by stuck. We all have different versions of what this means. But if you're reading this right now and nodding along with me, then think of the way that you are currently stuck. And let’s try to do something about that. Lately I’ve been feeling very stuck in a few areas of my life. I decided life is too short to live this way. It’s too short to not make progress on a book. It’s too short to do a job that I d…
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I was browsing through one of my books on writing (specifically, The Writer’s Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks & Techniques from Your Writing Career Coach by Christina Katz) and a tip regarding writing about the body caught my eye. The author spoke of how we have so many memories stored inside our bodies. This led me to thinking that if I brainstormed creative nonfiction essay ideas or journal entries about my own body, what would I write about? I’ve already written about the bump in the middle of my nose, and how I received it after falling off a pogo ball my stepfather bought me in the 1980s. I can still remember the taste of blood as it poured from my nose and onto the co…
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Whenever Mother's Day draws near, I must admit I go into overdrive reminiscing about my late mother and thinking of ways to pay homage to her and all that she ever taught me, through my writing. I have my fill of so many memories that I try to slip into those stories. Whether it's a fiction story about a family matriarch, a nostalgic essay about my mother's life, or a children's picture book story where she is the adoring Grandma doling out love, wisdom and peppermints, she is there, her voice, her advice, her mannerisms, the way she dressed, the wigs she loved wearing, the songs she hummed, the television shows she watched, the delicious meals she prepared, the prayers s…
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Writers are a quirky bunch, aren’t they? We all have our own way of making the magic, whether writing a novel, or a short story, or even an article. Some of us swear by outlines, some of us use a sticky note or index card system, and some of us sort it all with some form of a book map. I’ve used each of the above methods when writing novels, but sometimes, I mash them up and use ALL the sparkly stuff. Like this time around, when I pulled out all my techniques to use at different stages of the work. Here’s a walk-through of my latest novel and maybe you’ll find something that will help you at whatever stage you’re in: You may have heard about J. K. Rowling and her famous…
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After reading Bethany Jarmful’s "Friday Speak Out" post about making sure you write even when you’re busy, I thought of my early days of freelancing. I would often have my four-year-old daughter putting together a set of railroad tracks for my toddler son in the playroom so I could interview someone for a weekly newspaper column I wrote. I never could seem to coordinate phone calls with nap times, especially when my precocious daughter decided she was done with napping at the age of two. My kids are teenagers now and for a brief window of time after the oldest got her driver’s license and began driving her brother to and from school and to sports practices, I blissfully w…
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Perspective - What's Yours? How silly is this cow? She's trying to figure out what I'm drinking - cows are naturally curious animals and I just love spending time with them. When I was looking for a picture for this article, I thought you'd all enjoy this particular perspective seeking, milk producing, bovine! I learned something new lately and have been applying it in all sorts of areas of my life, but it can definitely help us as writers. Particularly if someone says something negative about our work. Keep that in mind while you're reading and get ready for my infamous questions at the end of our time together! By definition, perspective is our attitude about thin…
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Ask me today how I feel about a certain story of mine and I'll answer differently if you ask me next month. I've been working on revising a short story of mine and it's been a challenge. Yesterday was the first time I looked at it in a month, and I thought it needed quite a lot of shaping up. The plotline was solid but there were other factors that made me feel a bit "blech" about it. It made me think of how perspective on writing can be incredibly fickle. You see, I also rant into a flash fiction piece of mine that I had long since written off as being unworthy of publication. When I read it over the weekend, I thought to myself, "Wow, this really isn't that bad." The sa…
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If you’re looking for a writing prompt to spark some new output, here’s an exercise to try. Inspired by doing newspaper blackout poetry, which I wrote about here, it involves isolating words and phrases from a newspaper or magazine article. You can then use them to trigger some writing. Recently, I was doing this with the sports section of our paper (there seem to be good phrases there). I circled “Not really, Kyle” because that’s my husband’s name, so it made me chuckle. The article was referring to Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, in case you were wondering. Here are some of the sentence fragments I circled from a few issues. Any of these co…
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My grandmother. Recently I got an e-mail from my editor. “Would you be willing to take this on? One thing – all of the writers working on this project have to use pen names.” There are a variety of reasons that writers use pen names. A friend of mine who writes romance told me about the male members of Romance Writers of America who often use pen names. Another friend uses a pen name for her work for hire and her own name on her royalty paying jobs. Yet another writing friend, an engineer, writes science fiction and cozy mysteries under her own name and erotica under a pen name. I’ve heard from some writers that they use one name for their work for young readers an…
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For the past six weeks, I’ve been working as a mentor in a program that helps prepare writers for the educational market. The goal is that by the time the program is over they will have all that they need to apply to any educational market, and there are many. One group of educational markets specializes in testing. The authors who write for these markets prepare passages. Some of them also write the actual test questions. Many write for state assessment tests. Another group writes books for the school and library market. Most of these jobs are work-for-hire with a vast range of topics. To write for this market you have to write fast and you have to be flexible. T…
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Make the idea your own. November is Picture Book Month. No, not Picture Book Idea Month. That’s now known as Storystorm and takes place in January. Picture Book Month is all about celebrating the picture book. You can do this in any number of ways. It isn’t Storystorm, but you can still make a point of generating at least one new picture book idea every day. You can read a picture book every day. Your local library is sure to be full of picture books. You can doodle, illustrating your way through a manuscript idea every day. Buy picture books to give as Christmas gifts. Make earring charms featuring the covers of your favorite picture books. What… Ever. Do wh…
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No matter how old people are or their feelings about reading, they have fond memories of picture books. These memories can range from reading with parents or grandparents at night books like, The Monster at the End of This Book or The True Story of the Three Little Pigs or just about any Golden Book. Memories, of row after row of hardback picture books with white tags on the spine in a school library or even a public one, are also front and center in readers' minds. Maybe some of these picture books were the first ones that you learned to read as a child, and now you are sharing your favorites with your kids--Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or Don't Let the Pigeo…
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There are a lot of posts and articles, conference talks and YouTube videos and classes, that tell you the dos and don'ts of picture book writing. (Click the link for one by our very own Sue Bradford Edwards!) There are a lot of rules and best practices for picture book writers, and so when I said a couple of weeks ago that I was writing about the dos and don'ts of picture book writing--you probably rolled your eyes. But bear with me. I want to present a different kind of dos and don'ts list--one that reaches into your writer's soul and grabs on. One that allows you to write the best book you can for our youngest readers. The only "rule" I'll mention before I go on to t…
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Not to toot my own horn, but here it is, the next to last day of November, and I’m put-a-fork-in-my-manuscript-done with Nano. Um…I guess that is tooting my own horn. But I’m going to share how I accomplished my specific goal for this annual writing challenge and if you give my method a try, you’ll be tooting your own horn, too. THE GOAL Unlike the Nano standard 50,000 words by the end of the month, I tweak my goal to fit my specific need. This year, I had nearly 28,000 polished words of a cozy mystery. I wanted to add 10,000 words in November and develop a doable habit of producing the same per month (approximately 500 words a day). Keep in mind I’m editing and writing …
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Olivia Braley is a writer and author of the chapbook SOFTENING. She is a co-founder and Editor in Chief of Stone of Madness Press, and a Reader at Longleaf Review. Keep up with her work on Twitter @OliviaBraley or at her website, oliviabraleywrites.com. The first piece of Olivia’s writing I read was her poem “Litany of things to remember” published in issue 16 of Emerge Literary Journal, in which she was the featured writer. The poem left me in goosebumps and a desire to seek more of her work. The more I read, the more I wanted to learn about her style, writing process, and experiences as an editor, teacher, and new chapbook author. She has graciously shared her experien…
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This post made me think about how I work. Monday, I needed to dive into my rewrite. After all, I have a teen nonfiction book due Friday. It is 8 chapters, 15,000 words, and too long already. I need to focus the text, work in some more examples and descriptions, and cut the excess. One chapter is 700 words too long. Others include notes to myself like “Transition!” or “Brilliant conclusion goes here.” I spent the day prodding myself. “Must rewrite . . . must rewrite . . . must . . .” Somehow I suspect you know where I’m going with this. So much to do, so little interest. My brain was full of great ideas -- blog post ideas, ideas for my upcoming comic, and ideas for …
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About two weeks ago, I got two rejections in a single day. One was from a dream agent and it was a FORM rejection. But I was simply too busy to let it bother me. Whatever. Deadline dead ahead. Then a friend spoke about a similar pair of rejection that really shook her. She’s an amazing CNF writer and has had work in places I would never dream of approaching. But the rejections flattened her. Both of our responses made me wonder. Why do writers react to rejection the way we do? I turned to psychology for answers about how we react and what can be done about it. Why It Hurts For answers as to why rejection hurts, we need to look to the past. Early humans, without…
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I have a problem with putting myself first--ever. I'm not trying to be a martyr. I promise. I think it's just my current life stage of being a single mom of a needy dog and elementary-school-aged child and the only child of elderly parents. I have to constantly remind myself of the saying (and what to do on an airplane): "You have to put your oxygen mask on first." And that's so true. If we don't take care of ourselves or put our writing and creativity first sometimes, we will not be able to take care of the people who need us. During the holiday season, it's particularly hard to do this. At least for me. Besides the normal responsibilities and work, there are also presen…
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By Bobbie Christmas Q: For a two-hundred-page novel, how short is too short for the chapter length? A: The length of a chapter has only to do with the scene or scenes that need to be covered in a novel or the subjects to be covered in a nonfiction book. No rules apply to chapter length. I’ve seen a one-word chapter, albeit a contraction, in Angela’s Ashes. If I remember correctly the word was “T’was.” While I don’t recommend one-word chapters, logic should prevail when it comes to where to break chapters. In novels a new chapter can start after a time shift or a scene shift, for example. In nonfiction a new chapter may be appropriate when the subject matter changes. Al…
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Now announcing a blog tour featuring two clean and sweet books: Read-Aloud Stories with Fred Collection and Only My Horses Know. Both books are perfect for parents who worry about the material their children are reading or they are reading to them. Both are clean and sweet. Published by Editor-911 Kids, an imprint of Editor-911 Books, a small, independent press owned and operated by Margo L. Dill that publishes books that readers love but aren't traditional. Join us as we interview the authors, share more about the books, and give you the chance to win a copy! Also, by actively participating in this tour, you have the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Read-Aloud S…
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I'm excited to announce our upcoming blog tour for Rebirth by Kate Brenton. She's one of the instructors for the Sit & Write course we shared with you a couple of months ago, and her book shares real life stories about what happens when you let go and let life lead. This book is perfect for someone who needs a little support in listening to their true voice and remembering what is possible when they have the courage to surrender. Join us as we interview Kate Brenton about her book, share more details about her inspiring book, and give away a copy to one lucky reader. First, here's a bit about her book: When life is calling, often we need only the space and the suppor…
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I'm excited to announce the launch of a blog tour with Carolyn DiPasquale, author of the memoir Reckless Grace. Make sure you continue on to read more about this powerful memoir and an interview with the author. You'll have the chance to win a copy of the book too! First, here's a bit about Reckless Grace: Fourteen-year-old Rachel guards a collection of secrets for ten years, journaling to vent her terror and loneliness. Following Rachel's fatal overdose years later, her mother, Carolyn DiPasquale, stumbles upon her daughter's diaries. Shattered, she searches for answers, retracing her steps to figure out how parents and doctors missed three major mental illnesses. What t…
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Nothing like a worldwide pandemic to make even reading feel impossible. I don't know about you, but somehow over the last couple of years, I lost my love of reading. Like a former relationship, I knew the love had been there once upon a time, but somehow I wasn't feeling that same passion anymore. Luckily, I wasn't alone. I came across countless articles written by my fellow bookworms, bemoaning their loss of reading. (Here's one.) Instead of fighting it, I accepted it. It wasn't like I didn't try to find the right book for me, but I didn't beat myself over it. Jump ahead to 2021. Oh look, the pandemic is still here. Then came a heatwave. Several days of humid 90s, and i…
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It’s been a year since my husband began tracking COVID-19 on the CDC maps and telling me things weren’t looking good. A year since I brushed him off, telling him he was being an alarmist and trying to go about business as usual. After all, we were all too busy to worry about a virus—we’d all lived through things like SARS and H1N1—this would be no different, right? Of course, as we all know now, I was wrong. I don’t think anyone expected how quickly the virus would spread and the toll it would take on the health of our friends and family, as well as the difficulties our children would combat by not being able to see their friends or attend school in person. We all know ho…
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